


Feel Something Again

by lmontyy



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Canon Lesbian Relationship, Comfort, Confessions, Drinking, Drunken Confessions, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian Character, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Mild Hurt/Comfort, TLOU, The Last of Us - Freeform, Underage Drinking, Useless Lesbians, but it works out well for our favorite gay ladies :), dina and ellie, dina x ellie, ellie and dina, ellie and dina's friends really suck and cant handle their liquor, ellie x dina, the last of us part 2 - Freeform, theyre kind of assholes, tlou part ii
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24229360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lmontyy/pseuds/lmontyy
Summary: Ellie and Dina's friends really just cannot hold their liquor very well. When they start tearing into Ellie about her anxiety and her nervous nature, Dina can't resist the anger and steps in. Under their wrath, Dina breaks, and a secret about her best friend that she held slips out, unfortunately, with a helpless Ellie sitting right there.
Relationships: Dina & Ellie (The Last of Us), Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 278





	Feel Something Again

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by "Sober" by AJR!

“I like when Ellie drinks,” The tall boy with the blonde hair and lanky figure, Linus, that had been a part of their friend group for years when his family came to Jackson. “She’s way less nervous that way.”

Tilting a head and throwing an eyebrow up on her forehead, she struggled processing the comment, trying to decipher it as a compliment but failing miserably. “What’s that supposed to mean?” It came off a little more aggressive than she’d intended, but the glass wine cooler in her hand was probably where the blame could’ve been placed.

“You know? You’re so fucking nervous all the time,” The glass in _his_ hand was making him unapologetically bold. “It’s irritating. It’s fun when you loosen up.”

Both eyebrows shot up this time, the remark being taken in obvious offense this time. “I’m not nervous all the time,” she snapped back defensively. A hint of embarrassment laced her voice and for that, she wanted to slap herself.

The group around them in the hydroelectric plant were all staying startlingly silent, watching in alarm as the confrontation happened between them. The chattering of a few other friends separated from the group were the only other noises in the lit-up back room of plant that they used as their hideout when it was vacant and free of patrollers and workers.

Sometimes, when their friends drank, Ellie noticed that they became very moronic and daring with their words. And it didn’t blend well with the rush of confidence that Ellie would get like shocks through her body whenever she put a little alcohol to her lips. Her frequent anxieties would melt away with the ice in her drink. All of the panic attacks would drop off the back of her mind like a boulder off a cliff.

Even Dina, who was beside her, her own drink in her hand, was watching him with offense at the things he had been saying. She could watch the restraint breaking her best friend’s face at his words. It only endeared Ellie more to know that remarks targeted at her got under Dina’s skin, as well. _She’s too perfect sometimes._

“You so fucking are,” Suddenly, Jesse chimed in, completely throwing Ellie off. “Come on, you barely talk when you’re not dunking your face in booze.” His drunken laugh echoed off the walls and it burned every one of Ellie’s nerves.

“Are you guys okay?” Dina snapped. “Like, seriously.”

Ellie’s heart picked up at the sounds of their mocking and laughing. The anxiety that she had tried so hard to dispel started to pick up in her veins.

“Aw, come on,” Maggie, another friend of theirs, butt in lightheartedly. “They’re just teasing. Lighten up, guys.”

“No,” Dina corrected, shooting her down. “They’re being fucking assholes.”

“Why are you so nervous all the time, anyway, Ellie?” Linus continued, taking another long drink from his glass. “Somebody rough you up a couple years ago or something?”

The comment sparked chuckles among the clearly drunk guys. “Why do you run off sometimes to freak out?” Jesse threw in there, throwing his head back to laugh.

_God, jealousy is so ugly._ Ellie knew that an intoxicated Jesse would take full advantage of putting Ellie on the spot for things after Jesse saw Dina growing closer to her after their very messy breakup. She knew the ulterior motives behind the flames in the boy’s voice.

“What the fuck is your guys’ problem?” Dina demanded, her voice now firm and booming, slamming her glass down gently on the floor, causing everyone in the sitting circle to jump and look over at her with surprise and suspense at the situation.

Ellie was just quiet now, as pathetic as it made her feel. She hated how Dina was left to handle this mess, but the anxiety sparking up in her blood again kept her emotions, and in turn, her voice, at bay. _Why are you so fucking useless sometimes? Stand the fuck up for yourself, you coward._

“Hey, you know what, Dina?” Ellie put a hand up, her voice shaky but she did her best to swallow her nerves as best as she could. “It’s okay.” Dina shot her a look of disdain and confusion. “Let them talk, it’s cool.”

Her composure didn’t last long when Jesse started to laugh even harder. “Learn to take a joke. We’re asking a question.”

“This isn’t exactly funny,” Ellie retorted bravely, trying her best to overcome her nerves that shook from the confrontation. She brought the glass back up to her lips and let the cool drink flow down the back of her throat.

Linus smirked again. “What’s that funny breathing thing you do?” He started to grab his chest with a tight fist, balling up the cloth of his jacket in his palm.

Ellie nearly spit out her drink, fury completely sweeping her. But she held it together once again. “Again, don’t see where that’s funny.” Beside her, at a side-eye glance, she saw a flabbergasted Dina, staring at them in awe with her jaw hanging open, and brows furrowed angrily on a usually peaceful face.

“You guys are so drunk,” Another of their friends, Victor, got to his feet, holding his arms up in surrender. His plastic cup was glued to one hand. “I’m outta here before this gets ugly.”

“Pussy!” Linus drunkenly called after him, Jesse falling on him from wasted laughter.

“What the fuck is with you guys?” Ellie demanded sourly.

“Oh, relax,” Linus threw an eye roll in her direction. “We’re just havin’ fun.”

Ellie watched Dina’s foot start to shake with aggravation and impatience. _This is really bothering her, huh? I mean, that’s sweet, but, it’s fine…_

“Didn’t realize this is how you assholes had fun,” Dina muttered under her breath.

Jesse clicked his teeth, rolling his eyes. “Usually you’re a lot more fun than this, D. Why don’t you lighten up a little, huh?”

“Oh, really?” Her eyebrows shot up and she nodded her head in spite. “I’m usually more fun than this, huh? You think this is the way I act when I go out to parties and stuff?”

“It’s how you’d act with me when you got drunk,” Jesse countered scornfully. “Except you’d be louder and angrier. Why’s it any different here?”

Dina’s jaw tightened at the implication. “Because I wasn’t like this to someone who had nothing to do with me. What does Ellie’s anxiety have to do with you?” She glared daggers into the boy sitting next to Jesse. “Or you?”

“Again,” Jesse sighed, his lips still tugging up in a smile. “We’re just fucking around.”

“You’re getting quite defensive there, Dina,” Thomas, another boy sitting near them – who was also equally as drunk as the other two – drunkenly chimed in, the most teasing sense about his voice. “Why don’t you let Ellie handle her own problems? She’s a big girl, isn’t she?”

“I’m not allowed to stick up for her now, either?” Dina demanded, crossing her arms. Ellie reached an arm out and placed a hand comfortingly on her back, hoping that maybe it would get her to just stop fighting with them – it wasn’t worth it. Immediately, the muscles in her back untensed, and she almost leaned into the touch.

“Well, no one said that,” Thomas’s egging voice was so devious crafted. “But you seem to be very bothered that they’re playing around with Ellie.”

“Again,” Dina’s voice was just getting more and more frustrated. “Didn’t realize that making fun of something someone seriously goes through was _playing around.”_

“What’s the matter, Dina?” Linus’s horribly mocking voice cut through, joining in Thomas’s teasing. “You don’t like seeing Ellie picked on?”

“I think someone’s got a little bit of a crush…” Thomas made a drunken ‘ooh’ sound to further engrain it into her head.

Ellie, with skeptical eyes that were wide with questioning, were only met with an expression on Dina’s face like she’d never seen before – Dina looked, quite blatantly, like a deer caught in headlights. There was no disputing the look on her face, the complete look of entrapment on those lovely features. _No, there’s no way. They’re just teasing… Why is Dina not saying anything?_

Her silence made it worse, and when the guys only laughed at her lack of response, a humiliating blush crawled up on her delicate cheeks.

“I fucking knew it!” Linus jeered, bringing the glass to his lips and nearly spilling it with a shaky hand.

_“You_ fucking knew it?” Jesse reiterated, as if to obviously say that he had known long beforehand. “Why do you think I told you they were hooking up?”

“Woah, wait, wha…” Ellie immediately jumped in, seeing as it was Dina’s turn to completely internally collapse, and her turn to step in. “We never… We never did any of that.”

Thomas scoffed and laughed maniacally. “Who do you think you’re fooling?”

“We never did!” A defensive shout shot out the back of the shorter girl’s throat, oddly defensive now as the embarrassment that was so foreign to Ellie really set in on her. _I mean, I can’t say I haven’t wished it._

“Wow, you guys are fucking assholes…” Frieda, who was off on their side, raised her glass to her lips and her eyebrows spiked upward in complete shock.

Linus shot her a nasty look. “Shut up, Frieda.”

“Listen, if you guys are, like, lesbos or whatever, you guys like to hook up?” Thomas threw his hands up in defeat. “There’s no shame in that. Next time, maybe do it in front of u–”

Ellie snapped this time. “That’s enough, dude, fucking quit it.”

“If you have a girly crush on Ellie, just say so, Dina,” Jesse’s sour tone completely exposed his underlying emotion toward her and Ellie and the entire situation. His voice was so condescending and mocking, it set Ellie’s nerves aflame.

“You know what?” With an exasperated sigh, she pushed herself to her feet, ripping away from the sweet contact of Ellie’s hand on her back. She glared daggers down at the sitting boys who was far too gone to really grip what Dina was saying, or how upset she was. “Fuck you,” she pointed to Linus, then Jesse and Thomas. “Fuck you, and fuck you. Each of you are so fucking insufferable. Who I like is my business, not yours. Even if I did like Ellie, you three dickheads would be just about the last people I would tell, which is why I haven’t–”

Her mouth shut faster than a trap, and Ellie was left completely taken off-guard. _She hasn’t told them? Hasn’t told them what? About me? No fucking way._

Without warning, an angry and mortified Dina turned and stomped off and out of the plant, which Ellie could hear by the slam of the big metal doors downstairs. Ellie was more than quick to hop to her feet and flee after her. Behind her, she heard the drunken calls and antagonizing whistles of affection as they watched her run off, but she didn’t dare turn back. Dina had said everything she needed to say – there was no purpose in doing more damage.

Bursting out the double doors of the plant, she saw an angry girl running along the metal pathways, off to where Ellie knew the river to be. Her best guess is that Dina was retreating to go sit by the opening of the plant. And that’s exactly where she found her.

Sneakers hanging over the side of the metal floor, they hovered above a fast-moving water that fell through the bars that sent it flying down into the river below. She was motionless, and her gaze into the water never faltered or broke, even when Ellie sat down next to her.

That same comforting hand found its way on her back, rubbing circles through the fabric of her shirt and against her skin that she wished she could feel under calloused fingertips. Just like earlier, Dina had eased upon feeling the warmth of that familiar hand caressing her.

“Are you okay?” Ellie’s soft voice was smooth and soothing in the breezy summer night air. The softness in her voice prompted Dina to instantly lean into her, in search for any kind of warm comfort.

It stunned Ellie, but she was no stranger to Dina’s affections. She liked being touchy, and Ellie sure as hell didn’t mind receiving it. “I’m okay,” Dina responded in an equally as fragile voice as Ellie’s. She buried her head in the crook of Ellie’s neck and armpit, arms crossed, but body leaning into her. Ellie’s hand still traced patterns through soft fabric.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of them so bad,” Ellie couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief at the encounter from inside, letting the water rippling in the moonlight and the warmth of Dina’s body be the only factors holding her down to a more sober reality.

“No, that was just… awful,” Dina scoffed, shaking her head and nuzzling closer into Ellie when a small breeze hit a little extra hard. “That was just fucking awful.” She repeated incredulously.

“Yeah…” Ellie didn’t know what else to say – she desperately wanted to talk about what they were saying, how Dina reacted, what she said back… But no, she didn’t want to pry. This was her best friend, and she knew she just needed the support.

“I’m so glad I called it off with that asshole when I did,” She retorted, dark eyes glaring into the black, moving water that glistened in the moonlight. Her eyes reminded Ellie of the water in the plant.

Ellie scoffed in amusement. “I guess I gotta say I’m glad, too.”

Silence fell over them, and more than anything did Ellie want to get everything out on the table, but she held it back as hard as she could.

“Um…” Finally, Dina broke that silence with a hesitant response that, once again, had Ellie reeling with shock at this new display from her. There was nothing more striking than a flustered Dina that didn’t know what to say. “About all that…”

“I heard nothing,” Ellie interrupted her, causing Dina to turn and look at her with puzzlement. “None of what they said is sticking with me right now. I’m pretending all of that never happened.” She didn’t want Dina to feel obligated to say anything following what happened. She wanted anything Dina was thinking or feeling to come out on her own time, said with her own free will. Not pushed and forced out by three drunk assholes with no filter.

Dina still looked to her with confusion.

“As far as I’m concerned, they said nothing,” Ellie clarified. “You don’t have to talk about any of that. If there _is_ something you wanna talk about, I’m here when you’re ready.”

_Woah, okay,_ Ellie was completely astonished at her own mind for the lack of anxiety or reluctance in her voice. _Okay, I handled that way better than I expected._ Dina’s nervousness and her hesitation to talk must’ve sparked something within Ellie for the first time. For the first time ever, she felt in control of the situation with Dina. Her anxiety had subsided, and her maturity and adoration for her friend stepped in. Her care for Dina overrode her nerves tenfold.

Dina glanced down, and then back up, surprised and gratitude blending behind dark eyes. “Okay…” she muttered contently.

Ellie didn’t get much time to process it when Dina leaned in carefully, slowly, and a warm pair of lips placed gently against a freckled cheek, causing the blood to rush where her lips had touched on her skin.

“You wanna just… walk me home? I’m about ready to go,” Dina’s grin was one-sided and nervous. It was so new but Ellie definitely didn’t mind. Her mind was still reeling from the kiss.

“Of course,” Ellie was quick to follow in her footsteps as Dina began to lift herself to her feet, shivering at how cold the metal was underneath them.

“Maybe we can talk on the way back,” Dina turned to her, face brazen in the moonlight, beautifully lit and accentuating the lovely contours of her face, giving those murky eyes a glistening look that reminded her so much of the running water that fell under her eyes just minutes ago. “I have some things I could probably get off my chest.”

Ellie could only smile with understanding. God, how she cared for her. The blush that had creeped up on her face from Dina’s kiss to her cheek had only deepened as Dina’s soft hand found its way into her palm. When she looked back at her, her whole world melted around her.

“Lead the way.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> This is another of the Tumblr requests I received for these two.
> 
> My tumblr handle is @lmontyy, and I take any and all requests, (so long as they're not unreasonable or crazy!) but I'm very easygoing when it comes to writing, and do enjoy writing for others. Any and all questions or inquiries may be directed to my inbox here or on tumblr. :)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


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